Login

dizzyDC · 04-03-2017, 01:08 AM

Ready to be graded
3,015 words, double $$$ yo

Thank You and Farewell, For Now, Seattle
By: Louie Garrett

You know, growing up in a city with a professional sports team is an interesting experience. You and the rest of the city get to celebrate the teamâ€™s successes and mourn their failures, but we donâ€™t really have a reason to other than they represent the city that we know and love. For instance, I havenâ€™t met or know on a personal level anyone on the Seattle Riot roster (although that would be pretty freakinâ€™ awesome if I did), but you can bet your ass that I have still been rooting for them my entire life because thatâ€™s just what I was taught to do. Even though getting to support a hometown team is fantastic and an incredible amount of fun, sometimes there are moments created players or teams that really, truly, deeply affect their fans on personal and emotional levels; it can be an unbelievably impactful experience.

I have been feeling compelled to write a letter like this for a while, but at the same time I havenâ€™t felt that is really entirely appropriate for me to do so for a number of different reasons. This type of letter is usually reserved for a star player, who has spent the entirety of their career with an organization, but has decided to hang up the skates or they have been traded. Itâ€™s for players who have a heartfelt message for their fans; to let them know what they have meant to them as a player. To ultimately show that they arenâ€™t just some guy who plays for a team; that they were doing something that was important to a lot of people even if to some it didnâ€™t make sense.

Thatâ€™s why I wonder to myself as I write this letter, â€œwho in the hell do you think you are, Louie? These people donâ€™t care about you or what you have to sayâ€. Iâ€™m really just some kid out of Seattle who is trying to make a name for myself, Iâ€™m not a big time professional athlete but I have those aspirations. The people of this city donâ€™t recognize me as a star in the community or a role model of what can be achieved through hard work and dedication. In fact, Iâ€™m only leaving the city to join the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League (SMJHL), a lot of the people here havenâ€™t even heard of that league. As I was saying this stuff, I had to remind myself that that doesnâ€™t actually matter, not even in the slightest. Seattle, as a city, has still been one of the major factors in shaping me as a human being and a hockey player so really, I owe a lot to Seattle. Ultimately that is why I am writing this letter, because despite me being an unknown to a lot of people, they are part of the reason why I have had enough success in my life to lead me to taking the next step in my hockey career. So here is my attempt, as just some kid, to show gratitude to those who have helped get me to this point in my life.

First and foremost, this is going to sound incredibly clichÃ© but please keep reading because I have a lot of things to say. Alright, so first of all I have to thank my family for all of the different sacrifices that they have had to make in order to accommodate for my hockey career. My family has never been well off, but my parents were able to get me the equipment that I needed in order to play hockey. I never had fanciest or most expensive gear and honestly sometimes other kids would give me shit about my gear, but that only drove me to be a better player than them. I could show them that gear and equipment didnâ€™t matter as long as the player was better and you could bet that I was a better player. Neither of my parents ever missed a game when I was growing up. I honestly canâ€™t remember a single game where they didnâ€™t have their faces pressed up on the glass cheering their heads off. Even if I was playing the worst game of my life, they always showed that they were proud of me and that honestly meant the world to me. I specifically remember after games where I had played poorly they would go out of their way to tell me what a great job I had done out there, more so than usual. I could have heeled shots at open nets or passed a puck that turned into a turnover and breakaway goal and they wouldnâ€™t have cared or at least thatâ€™s what it always seemed like to me. I also remember them getting up before dawn to make sure that I got to practices on time. They both worked long hours and needed all of the sleep that they could get but they always made sure that they were there when I needed them.

My parents arenâ€™t the only part of my family though, my brother and sister also have given up a lot for me. Vacations that they wanted to take were put on hold for me to play in tournaments. Really things can be boiled down to them not getting things that they wanted because of my commitments to hockey. I canâ€™t really say that things have played out evenly with us. I am incredibly thankful to them because they never really gave me shit about it. They knew that I was trying to accomplish something big and that they were going to help me by being part of the process. Not only am I thankful, Iâ€™m happy that they were willing to help me get to this point. I would be filled with guilt if I thought they spited me for playing hockey. I would have given up this sport that I love in a heartbeat if I truly thought that they werenâ€™t okay with making some sacrifices in their own lives. Just because they have had to make some sacrifices doesnâ€™t mean that they arenâ€™t having their own successes though. I want to wish them both congratulations, first to my sister (Tess) who recently got a scholarship to study at the University of Washington and to my brother (Bryan) who recently got a big promotion at work. You guys are doing awesome and Iâ€™m very proud of both of you. Honestly, these last couple of paragraphs arenâ€™t enough to really describe how much I owe my successes to my family as a whole. Itâ€™s not really something that can be put into words, but this was the best that I could do with my limited time and space to write this letter. Sorry guys, Iâ€™ll be sure to give you guys a more heartfelt thank you when I get drafted!

The next person that I need to thank is my longtime coach, Herb Speckman. Coach and I have had an interesting career together to say the least. The best way that I can really describe Herb Speckman is that he was truly a mean son of a bitch. Donâ€™t worry, he wouldnâ€™t have been angry to read this because he would probably have agreed with it. I will never forget my first practice on his team. I was just starting out, but I thought that I was the most badass player to ever step on the ice (even though I was really nothing special). I was mouthing off to other kids who had been on the team longer and who were better than me. I was giving teammates snow showers in drills, just acting like a real jerk to everyone around me because I wanted to show off; I wanted to get noticed, well I think I definitely got notice in that practice. To be perfectly honest, I was an embarrassment. My parents would have reamed me if they had been there for the practice, my attitude was way out of line. He saw me acting like an asshole and he called me over to the side of the rink where he was standing. He was acting really nice; had a big smile on his face and everything, it was actually kind of creepy especially to a kid. When I had finally skated over to him, he crouched down, got right in my face and said in the most deadpan tone â€œYou ever pull that shit on my ice again and Iâ€™ll make sure you never play in this city again, youâ€™ll have to find another sport, sonâ€. Not the harshest thing Iâ€™ve ever heard a coach say, but I was just a little kid and it was horrifying. I was shocked, I had no idea what to do or say at that point. He then told me to get back to the drills that the rest of the guys were working on and that was it, he never mentioned that moment again from what I remember. He never had a reason to bring it up because I made sure to never cause him problems again.

He was a pretty rough guy, especially for a coach that had spent his career teaching young kids. He really didnâ€™t seem like the type of guy who would enjoy teaching kids how to play. You never really quite knew when he was going to completely fly off the handle at someone or something. His wrath wasnâ€™t always directed at us either, he was pretty well known around the Seattle hockey scene for being able to give the refs an earful. He even managed to get ejected from a few games. Even though he wasnâ€™t an easy coach to play for, he gave me some of the best advice that I have ever received. It was advice that he gave the entire team. He told us, â€œAlways remember that you are the key to your own success. If you stay focused on what you want to accomplish, youâ€™ll find a way to make it happen. Donâ€™t blame the other guy for a failure. Failures are just ways for us to learn what we need to work on to be successfulâ€. That advice has stuck with me to this day. I work diligently to not make the same mistake twice. Will mistakes happen, yes of course, he taught me that mistakes only make you a better person and player in the long run. Unfortunately, Coach Herb passed away this last year, rather unexpectedly too. I wish that he would have been able to see me get drafted into the SMJHL. He knew that it was a dream of mine to play professionally someday, he would have been proud to watch me make that next step. He put in a lot of hours helping me to get better at this sport and I canâ€™t thank him enough. Thanks coach, this next season Iâ€™ll be playing for you.

One group of people that I have to thank are the scouts of the different SMJHL teams that took are taking a chance on me. It might be a weird thing to thank scouts because they might not have even necessarily been at my games to watch me play hockey (there are a lot of talented players that I have played with over the years), but Iâ€™m guessing they must have said something about me to their GMs at some point because Iâ€™ve been getting calls from them about potentially playing for their organizations, which is always a good feeling knowing that there are people out there who are recognizing the hard work you are putting into being successful at your craft. In all honesty, I (or any other player for that matter) could be playing awesome hockey; hockey that is clearly worthy of being in the SMJHL, but if there is no one there to notice you it gets tough to make the next step up. I guess this is where I write a shameless plug about myself to any GMs that might be reading this article. That seems appropriate right? I just wanted to say that I will work to the best of my ability to make whatever team I get drafted by a championship squad. Thatâ€™s easier said than done, but you wonâ€™t be making a mistake in drafting me. Making me part of your organization will be just the beginning of a new era in the SMJHL because weâ€™re going to be going places very soon and you can trust me on that one because I have nothing but winning on my mind. Alright *clears throat*, I think thatâ€™s enough sucking up to those in the suits and ties, I think that they get the point that I am trying to make. Iâ€™ll just have to let my play on the ice show them why I should be on their team.

To go along with the scouts that have been watching my game, I have to thank the other players that will be entering the draft. We all use each other to get better at the game. Coming up here pretty soon most of us will be competitors with each other. Most of us will be on different teams. Sometimes it will be friendly competition, other times weâ€™ll be fighting for our lives. I watch as these guys and girls get better at the game every single day. Itâ€™s impossible to just sit by and watch them improve at a faster pace than you. Itâ€™s totally unacceptable to say the very least. Everyone wants to be the first overall draft pick. If an athlete tells you any differently, they are lying out of their ass because everyone wants to be first. The reality is, however, that honor goes out to only one person so you have to be the best that you can be. Thatâ€™s what Coach Herb was telling me for all of those years. You see someone giving one hundred and ten percent and youâ€™re only giving one hundred? You are doing something wrong. These people have given me a gauge to know where I stand so even though you all arenâ€™t from Seattle, and thatâ€™s really what I wanted to focus on in this letter, I have to give you some thanks. I look forward to being teammates with some of you and competing with the rest.

Finally, like I said before, I have to thank the city of Seattle. This city has given me everything. It gave me an outlet to learn the game of ice hockey. It gave me an outlet to improve my game to the point where Iâ€™m making the big jump up. It gave me something to be proud of and aspire to be part of someday. The people here have no idea that they have given me something so special to me, it might actually be impossible for them to understand. I can walk down the street and see a guy wearing a Riot jersey and say to myself, â€œThat guy is going to know who I am someday. Even if I donâ€™t play for the Riot, heâ€™ll know me as a star in the SHLâ€. That is an incredible driving force for me as an athlete. Itâ€™s something tangible that I can look at every single day to remind me of the end goal of all of the hard work that I put into this sport. Some might say itâ€™s just me being delusional and, you know, they might be right. I might actually be going crazy sitting here waiting for draft day. In fact, the more I say it to myself the more I believe that might actually be the case and I imagine that it is only going to get worse this week as we inch closer and closer to the big day. In all seriousness though, Iâ€™m going to miss the city of Seattle and everything about it. Iâ€™m going to miss the eternally rainy days, getting to watch the Riot live all of the time, being able to walk around Pike Place Market, even the coffee snobs telling me how their fair trade, meticulously roasted, Indonesian imported coffee beans make better coffee than the cup I picked up at a Starbucks (they are probably right about that, but Iâ€™m a man on a budget dammit. That stuff is expensive). The city has its charms that other people might not understand and thatâ€™s okay. I wouldnâ€™t expect everyone to fall in love with my city, but if you grew up there you would find it difficult to leave behind.

So, I think thatâ€™s really all I had to say. Iâ€™m not really good at these sorts of things. Writing an article like this was incredibly difficult for me because I didnâ€™t really know what to say but I felt like I had to say something as this chapter of my life is coming to an end. Itâ€™s a big deal for me to be leaving this city and my family behind in order to fulfil my dreams of playing hockey. Leaving home is something that everyone has to do at some point, but it doesnâ€™t usually happen to people in this particular way. I might end up close by in Vancouver or a couple thousand miles away in Halifax or somewhere in between. Itâ€™s a mystery that will be solved this week and I look forward to every minute of this journey that I am about to take. So once again, Seattle, thanks again for everything. I appreciate everything that has been given to me more than anyone could possibly know and I can only hope to return the favor by making you all proud of me someday. For now, I guess I have to say goodbye to Seattle. I know that I will be back someday, but I have to make a couple of pit stops along the way. Itâ€™s been real, donâ€™t change too much without me.